Sounds of art@radio returns to a new location and streaming effort employing several low power radio transmitters embedded at the Chesapeake Arts Center broadcasting trans-local voices and sounds of place. Also broadcast will be excerpts from the a@r archives. Stay tuned for more information as it develops. This is an example of some of the sounds of Curtis Bay, south Baltimore City, Maryland. Standing just inside of the Chesapeake CompostWorks warehouse with a steamy 12 foot pile of compost on one side and an open space that expands out towards the Inner Harbor the sounds of trains moving in and out of earshot along with various industries percolating in the soundscape.

Imagining America or IA is scheduled to be hosted by UMBC from October 1- 4, 2015. quoted from IA’s site: Imagining America was formally launched at a 1999 White House Conference initiated by the White House Millennium Council, the University of Michigan, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The name Imagining America reflects the theme of the White House Millennium Council, focused on renewing participation in all walks of U.S. life: “Honor the Past – Imagine the Future.” Conference participants became the basis for what would become IA’s consortium of colleges and universities, and the University of Michigan agreed to be the initial host campus, with Julie Ellison as founding director. Achievements of IA’s early years include fostering a national network of campus-community collaborators in humanities, arts, and design; developing an analytical framework to aggregate and critically consider the range of nascent artistic and scholarly endeavors; and promoting […]

Maree Farring Elementary Middle School, Brooklyn, south Baltimore City. We are working on an interior upgrade to the school to enhance the learning of the young people at MGFEMS. This will be a collaboration with MICA Design School, UMBC and Maree Farring art students. We might also have a number of Benjamin Franklin High School students work with us as well. Maree Farring is a feeder school to BFHS. We have a deadline of February 1st to hand over a color scheme to the contract painters. Then we will begin the next stage of the project, which will be to look at integrating “banner” systems to signify what that area of the school is designated as, i.e., kindergarden, the different grade levels, library, cafeteria, gym, main office and so on. Students will paint onto prepped banners with grommets so that every few months the students can update the […]

Saturday, I took an interesting Programmable Shape-Memory Alloys workshop December 13th at CCBC’s FABLab presented by Kelly Zona (left), an excellent creative educator. I will post more documentation once I am able to setup the muscle wire device over the next few days. We are using an Ardunio system to control the electricity along with a few electronic components. The following is a laser cut paper shape that has the muscle wire threaded through the holes. When the wire is electrified, it shrinks by 10%, when it released, it returns to it’s original shape- as long as you don’t shock it too much. Pretty impressive material– though I am fascinated by this I think there are similar techniques that can be achieved with pulleys and levers, more work and more space, too. There are many possibilities being explored involving robotics and experimental movement. Wearable technologies is worth G-searching.

Working out the final details – sketch for how the hardware will secure the upper and lower portion of the object to the base, the abandoned shell of the LP player that container the electronics and the computer. Posted earlier in the month, I added this drawing of the overall structure of the object. Also included is a photograph of the current stage of the signing bowl object. This is the overall prototype/ model of the singing bowl project. The next step is to add the hardware to attach the top portion to the tin trashcan and the lower portion onto the old retrofitted LP box. Detail of the singing bowl that I purchased in Valencia, Spain in 2006. The solenoids can be seen on the right and lefthand side of the bowl. I am using an Arduino to drive the solenoids. Programing assistance from Alan Grover was essential to the success […]

December 12/09 I had the privilege to spend several hours photographing the interior of Maree Farring Elementary Middle School in Brooklyn , MD just up 3rd Street from the Brooklyn Enoch Pratt Free Library. The purpose of the dark navy blue paint was to prevent the children’s writing and drawing from being visible on the walls. Without knowing the history my hunch was that the children did not have an adequate creative outlet so they expressed themselves on the walls.